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Place names - Hurst, what does it mean
 
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Does the Hurst snippet in Saxon village names mean a wood ? ▲

The current etymology(derivation) of the snippet hurst

From Wiktionary:
From Middle English hirste (“wood, grove; hillock; sandbank, sandbar”), from Old English hyrst (“hillock, eminence, height, wood, wooded eminence”), from Proto-West Germanic *hursti; akin to Dutch horst (“thicket; bird's nest”), German Horst (“thicket, nest”).

From Etymonline:
"hillock" (especially a sandy one), also "grove, wooded eminence," from Old English hyrst "hillock, wooded eminence," from Proto-Germanic *hursti- (see horst). Common in place names (such as Amherst).

From localhistories.org:
HURST
Hurst meant a wooded hill.

From the 'Oxford Illustrated Dictionary 1981':
Hurst - Hillock; sandbank in the sea or river; wooded eminence; wood;

From the Anglo-Saxon Dictionary online':
Hyrst - a hurst, copse, wood.

From the above different etymologies it would seem that a hurst could be a wood.
What history do we have for the hursts ▲

There appear to be a lot of settlements with the snippet hurst in my local area, but the only early records for these settlements appear in the old church records. Lets look at some of the hursts in my area which is along the Kent and Sussex Borders. The examples I will be using as a sample run along the old ridgeway from Newenden to Wadhurst and see if there are any references we can use.

These consist of the churches of Sandhurst, Hawkhurst, Ticehurst and Wadhurst.

The history of St Michael's Sandhurst

1175 - ​First mention of Sandhurst
1220 - First mention of a chapel in Sandhurst

The history of St Lawrence Hawkhurst

It is likely that there has been a church on this site from at least 1100, maybe earlier, when Hawkhurst belonged to the Abbot of Wye, and then of Battle, given to him by William the Conqueror as part of his thank-offering after the Battle of Hastings. The first mention of the building is in a Charter of 1285 and the first Rector whose name we have is Richard de Clyne in 1291.

The history of St Mary's Ticehurst

In the year 1018 King Cnut made a grant to Aelfstan, Archbishop of Canterbury of “a certain little woodland pasture in the famous wood of Andredeswealde which is commonly called Haeselersc…” The name survives today as Hazelhurst Farm in Ticehurst parish.

The Domesday Survey which started in 1086 does not mention Ticehurst, but it refers to “Hasslesse” (again Hazelhurst).

The earliest reference to Ticehurst is in a document of 1180 relating to Combwell Priory and mentions “Adam, Presbyter de Tychenherste. In 1197 the church at Ticehurst is confirmed as coming under Hastings Priory.

The history of St Peter & St Paul Wadhurst

The church dates from the early 12th Century. It is situated in the centre of Wadhurst, just off the main street. Built of sandstone, the tower is from 1100, and its fine shingle spire, recently restored after gale damage, dates from the 14th Century.

From the above records it would seem that hursts are mentioned in the Domesday Book from 1086AD, but not the villages listed, and that they were founded before the 1100's.
The Domesday book 1086AD ▲

The Domesday Book was created for William the Conqueror to enable him to asses taxes.

Let us now look at the 'hursts' mentioned in the Domesday book for Sussex and Kent to see if this shows any suggestions.
 
A map of all the Hursts mentioned in Domesday ▲

This map is based on Google maps using their API, and shows all the Hurst's mentioned in Domesday, there are very few, this is odd as we observe a large number in this area today.

The data for this map is derived from the Open Domesday website
This is the first free online copy of Domesday Book. The site was built as a non-profit project by me, Anna Powell-Smith, using data created by Professor J.J.N. Palmer and a team at the University of Hull.
A map of all the modern Hursts ▲

This map is based on Google maps using their API, and shows all the Hursts mentioned in the Ordnance Survey Open Names dataset.

There appear to be two main clusters of hursts, one in the South East, the other in the West Midlands area.

A map of all the South Eastern Hursts mentioned in Domesday ▲

This map is based on Google maps using their API, and shows all the Hurst's mentioned in Domesday, as is obvious there is a large empty area in the Wealden area. The circle size shows the relative settlement sizes, Brightling is described as having a population of 12, and Rye a population of 189. Red circles are destroyed villages, yellow damaged and green unaffected by the invasion.

The data for this map is derived from the Open Domesday website
This is the first free online copy of Domesday Book. The site was built as a non-profit project by me, Anna Powell-Smith, using data created by Professor J.J.N. Palmer and a team at the University of Hull.
Is there anything this boundary in Domesday could represent ▲

The Anglo Saxon Chronicles 892AD - the Viking large army.
This year went the large army, that we before spoke about, came from a kingdom in the east, westward to Bologne; and there were shipped; so that they transported themselves over at one time with their horses withal. And they came up with two hundred and fifty ships into the mouth of the Limne, which is in East-Kent, at the east end of the vast wood that we call Andred.

This wood is in length, east and west, one hundred and twenty miles, or longer, and thirty miles broad. The river that we before spoke about comes out of the weald.

On this river they towed up their ships as far as the weald(wood). Four miles from the mouth of the river they destroyed a fort within the fen(possibly near Burmarsh - Burh Maersc the marsh fort), whereon sat a few churls, and which was hastily wrought. Soon after this came Hasten up with eighty ships into the mouth of the Thames, and wrought him there a work at Milton. and the other army went to Appledore.

So we have a large forest 120 miles long by 30 miles wide covering the area which is the approximate size for the boundary we have drawn.
 
A map of all the modern Hursts in the South East ▲

This map shows the modern hursts in the South East of Britain, and as you can see the majority of hursts line inside the green boundary.

Timescales for the Hursts ▲

From our above maps and dates, it would seem that a majority of the hursts in the South East were settled after Domesday 1086AD and before 1100AD. The only event during this time that was large enough to provide a large enough population migration to settle these villages was the Battle of Hastings in 1066AD.

Conclusion ▲

We can now see that our question 'Does the Hurst snippet in Saxon village names mean a wood ?' was not correct at the time the settlements were created, and that a better original definition of the Saxon word hyrst would be 'a clearing in a Forest'.

So over time the original meaning of the word has been completely reversed and it now means a wood or copse.

Loose Ends ▲

If we make the assumption that a hurst is 'a clearing in the forest', this then implies that the Forest Of Andredsweald was larger before Domesday, and that the settlements shown in Domesday are very early Saxon settlements.

This would also mean that this Forest was being cut down to provide fuel, or construction materials for earlier Saxons and also by the Romans from the Hastings and Pevensey areas, so theoretically it would be possible to estimate the annual reduction in Forest size.

The other implication is that if the forest was only being eroded from this direction then the Hastings and Pevensey areas were major construction/industrial areas , and the proximity both to the Forest and sea were of major importance for Romans and Saxons, which implies in turn shipbuilding.
Please read our The Great Forest of Andredsweald - Anglo Saxon Chronicles page for more details on the Forest.



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Author Simon M - Last updated - 2024-10-15 07:25:14
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